London has been battered by 50mph winds that have felled trees and caused travel chaos. Powerful gusts swept across the capital as the Met Office issued a yellow "be aware" weather alert for most of the country.

Lord Foster’s 40-storey, then 26-storey, Penny Whistle tower in Ealing was a loony-tune development dreamt up in the boom by a now-bust Irish developer.

This week a man with the slightly worrying name of Marc Mogull bought the 2.8-acre town centre site from the administrators for £37 million.

Fear not. Mogull’s 30-strong Knightsbridge company, Benson Elliot, paid cash up front and is respectable enough to be entrusted with €850 million (£682 million) of other people’s money to invest in property.

Sensible architects Allies & Morrison have been appointed to draw up a more, well… sensible scheme. Phil Irons of Benson Elliot says they have had “more than a few meetings” with the council. “We expect to develop a two-phase scheme.”

The first-phase retail plan, to be submitted in six months, will include the complete “reconfiguration” of the down-at-heel Arcadia retail centre. Plans for flats and more shops next door will be submitted in 18 months. Will they include a nice tall tower? “What! You’ve got to be kidding,” exclaimed Irons.